Transcript The Cold War

The Cold War
Conflicts
The Korean War June 1950 - 1953
In 1948 two different
governments were
established on the Korean
Peninsula, fixing the SouthNorth division of Korea. The
Republic of Korea (South
Korea) was born south of the
38th parallel and the
Democratic People's
Republic of Korea (North
Korea) north of it.
Korean History
 North Korea, having obtained a
massive amount of weapons from
the Soviet Union and the Chinese
Communist Party, prepared to
invade the South to establish
communism in the entire peninsula.
 In the predawn hours of Sunday,
June 25, 1950, the North Korean
forces, spearheaded by tanks and
self-propelled guns, unleashed allout attacks across the 38th parallel.
The United States and the UN enter
 The US, with the United Nations,
came to the aid of South Korea,
fearing that inaction in Korea
would be interpreted as
appeasement of communist
aggression elsewhere in the world.
 The US Eighth Army counterattacked, recapturing Seoul by
mid-March 1951, and then
advancing to just below the 38th
parallel.
General Douglas MacArthur
Korean Amrmistice
 In July of 1953 truce talks were
completed at Panmunjom, the
military commanders of the North
Korean Army, the Chinese
People's Volunteers, and the
United Nations Command signed
an armistice agreement.
 The war lasted three years and
one month and devastated
almost the entire Korean
Peninsula.
The Vietnam War 1955 - 1975
 The war was fought over the North
Vietnamese and the south Vietnamese
because the north invaded the south
 The reason America got involved was
because we are allies with South
Vietnam and so we helped them
 North Vietnam was a communist
country and America was fighting to
preserve democracy
 John F Kennedy sent in 400 Green Berets
The Big Battles
 Battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954)
Starts US Evolvement in Vietnam War
 Gulf of Tonkin (1964)
US destroyer Maddox was fired on by North Vietnamese torpedo boats
Gave broad congressional approval for the expansion of the Vietnam War
 Tet Offensive (1968)
Consisted of a series of sharp attacks on urban and rural areas in South Vietnam by
the Vietcong
 Paris Peace Agreement (January 1973)
United States and North Vietnam signed which provided the withdrawal of all
remaining U.S. forces from Vietnam
 The Fall of Saigon (April 30, 1975)
Capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam by North Vietnamese Army; event
marked the end of the Vietnam War
Very different than Korea…
 The U.S. spent over $140 billion
 58,000 U.S. soldiers were killed
 350,000 were wounded
 Most of the U.S. soldiers who fought in
Vietnam were drafted
 As the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam
grew it became more costly and the U.S.
economy suffered. President Johnson
increased taxes to monitor inflation.